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The new Virgin 24 bit mastered reissues of all Bowie's albums have been givin the royal treatment by Peter Mew at Abbey Road. "Young Americans" sounds like it was made yesterday. No over emphasis on the high and low end, like some remastered recordings.This album was David's first venture into the soul sound of the 70's. Bringing on artists like, Luther Vandross to arrange and sing backing vocals on most of the tracks. Also tenor sax great, David Sanborn for some soulful soloing. Andy Newmark adds some solid drumming through out. The opening track "Young Americans", features Sanborn in a classic solo and Vandross' thick gospel like vocal arrangment. The next track "Win", features the same but is slow and sultry tune with a nice string arrangment. One of my favorites on the album. The rest of it is mostly the same arrangment with varying tempos. All good tracks with decent lyrics. John Lennon adds his help on the last track "Fame" on guitar & vocals. He also is on a remake of his "Across the Universe", which doesn't out do the original. A very good sounding remaster! Pick it up.
What makes people (especially hardcore Bowie fans) so indifferent to this disc is its simplicity--this is really just Bowie and a bunch of musicians (John Lennon, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross and Earl Slick, among them) making an r&b album, and doing a pretty good job of it. The title cut is one of Bowie's most infectious tunes and features some of his most oblique lyrics: "Well, well, well, would you carry a razor?/In case, just in case of depression/Sit on your hands on a bus of survivors/Blushing at all the Afro-sheeners". Other standouts include "Fascination", "Fame" and "Somebody Up There Likes Me". The excellent bonus cut "Who Can I Be Now?" should have made it onto the original album, preferably in place of the misguided remake of "Across the Universe". One can only presume that John Lennon was in a particularly gracious mood the day it was recorded. |